Ingraham Wants Symonette On Boundaries Commission:

By Tameka Lundy -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Opposition Free National Movement [FNM] Leader Hubert Ingraham said yesterday he intends to advise Governor General His Excellency Arthur D. Hanna today that Deputy Leader Brent Symonette is the opposition’s choice to be a member of the Constituencies Commission.

The appointment of the members of that Commission – intended to ensure fairness in the drawing of constituency boundaries – is considered a surefire sign of approaching general elections.

Prime Minister Perry Christie announced last week that he would immediately advise the Governor General to constitute the boundaries commission.

Under the law, the Speaker of the House of Assembly is appointed chairman and the other members include a justice of the Supreme Court as Deputy Chairman; two members of the House of Assembly appointed on the advice of the prime minister; and another MP appointed on the advice of the leader of the Opposition.

" In pursuance of my constitutional obligations in this matter I shall on Tuesday advise the Governor General, His Excellency Mr. Arthur D. Hanna, that I have selected Mr. Brent Symonette, the Member of Parliament for Montagu and Deputy Leader of the Free National Movement to be the Opposition’s member of the Commission," Mr. Ingraham said in a press statement

He also indicated that his party welcomed the prime minister’s recent announcement concerning the commission.

He referred to the exercise as an extremely important one in a process which is designed to give the people of The Bahamas the opportunity to express their will at the polls by selecting those persons who will represent them in parliament and form the next Government of The Bahamas.

He described Mr. Symonette as "an experienced parliamentarian with a thorough knowledge of the whole Bahamas and I am confident he will effectively represent the Opposition and the people of The Bahamas in our efforts to achieve a fair and equitable adjustment of electoral boundaries."

The Constitution of The Bahamas provides for the appointment of a Commission to review the number and boundaries of electoral constituencies into which The Bahamas is divided at intervals of not more than five years.

Mr. Ingraham pledged the Opposition’s fullest cooperation in ensuring that the number of voters in each constituency shall, as far as is reasonably practicable, be the same in each constituency. He said the Opposition would support any "reasonable recommendations having regard to other provisions of the Constitution relating to geographical and other considerations."

The FNM leader also used the opportunity to urge all qualified citizens to register to vote as soon as possible.

With approximately 10 months left before a general election must be called, less than half of the citizens who are qualified to vote have actually registered, according to Parliamentary Commissioner Errol Bethel.

Mr. Bethel said in a recent Bahama Journal interview that 67,363 people out of an anticipated 170,000 had registered up to last Wednesday which chalked up to a lack of enthusiasm.

Of that number almost two thirds of the registered voters - approximately 45,000 - is on New Providence. There are 11,800 Grand Bahamians and 10,300 Family Island residents who have registered as well.

Mr. Bethel said he feared that Bahamians were, for the most part, waiting for the commission to submit its report before registering to vote.

"One thing we cannot do is wait for the bell to ring because once the bell does ring that means the election is imminent," he said. "That may be a bit late because you could have the boundaries commission reporting and then you could have elections a couple of months after that."

Once the commission is constituted, it will review existing constituencies to determine whether they should remain unchanged or be altered. There are currently 40 constituencies with the ruling Progressive Liberal Party [PLP] representing all except one New Providence district. The FNM represents 8 constituencies all of which except one are in the Family Islands.

Other than House Speaker Oswald Ingraham and Mr. Symonette, the other members of the Commission were not named up to yesterday.

25 July 2006

bahamian politics